City of Las Cruces to switch banking services to US Bank

Kasandra Gandara, left, Greg Smith, center, and Jack Eakman, along with the other members of the Las Cruces City Council, listen to a presentation about the Apodaca Blueprint, Monday, May 7, 2018. Later in the meeting, the council voted to switch banking services to US Bank.(Photo: Josh Bachman/Sun-News)Buy Photo

In September 2017, city councilors decided to separate from Wells Fargo, a year after a national scandal broke alleging employees of the bank were creating millions of fake bank accounts for customers.

"We should have policy we don't use vendors who profit from illegal activity," Jack Eakman said at the time.

In January, city staff sent invites to participate in a banking request for proposal to 28 area banks, Smith said. A city advisory committee would ascribe a score to the banks based on each one's Community Reinvestment Act rating, bankrate.com rating, cost to the city and other factors.

Smith said three banks responded to the initial RFP, and all three were disqualified because they didn't follow the directions noted in the proposal. The city said it clarified its instructions and sent the invites again. In March, three banks responded to the RFP and two were compliant.

The Bank of Albuquerque, which does not have a branch in Las Cruces, had the highest raw score, said Rosie Duran, the city's director of financial services. However, US Bank, which has three branches in Las Cruces, had a higher score when local was factored into the rankings.

Duran answered a few questions from Mayor Ken Miyagishima, assuring him that US Bank would be able to make payroll and said city employees could choose to do their personal banking at any financial institution.

The measure passed unaminously.

In September, city spokesman Udell Vigil said the city had about $90 million in city accounts with Wells Fargo, of which $10 million is operating cash. Annual transactions are around $820 million.